Marist’s boys played perfect basketball in January, as far as the schedule is concerned. The RedHawks went 10-0 in the coldest month, finishing the run with a 60-37 romp over Notre Dame on Jan. 31.
It was a romp, at least in the second half. The RedHawks led only 23-20 at halftime.
Maybe it helped that Cardinal Blase Cupich, on hand for the game, switched his seat from behind the Dons bench to behind the RedHawks bench for the second half. But more likely, it was because Marist turned up the wick defensively, forcing the Dons into areas of the court they were unaccustomed to.
“We lacked defensively in the first half,” forward Marquis Vance said, a notion echoed by fellow forward Karson Thomas. “When we picked it up, it (the defense) came around.”
“We had to lock in and rebound,” Thomas added. “That’s the only reason they stayed with us early. We weren’t getting any offensive rebounds, not boxing out at all.”
Then came the third quarter. Getting to the ball first, Marist not only outscored the Dons 24-9 in the period but held a 10-1 rebounding advantage — six on the offensive boards — while forcing a quartet of turnovers.
That was more what Marist coach Brian Hynes was aiming for.
“At halftime we said we were going to pressure them a little bit,” Hynes said. “We put T.J. Tate on their ball-handler, which I should have done earlier, and that got them uncomfortable.
“And they outrebounded us in the first half. I was a little upset at halftime. A faster game favors us.”
Vance, shrugging off an injured knee, had 11 points and six rebounds, while Thomas added a team-high 14 points, 10 in the third quarter. Stephen Brown, coming off the bench and playing limited minutes because of a tender right ankle just after returning from a broken collarbone, nonetheless scored 13 points and seemed unconstricted in any way.
The outcome pushed the RedHawks’ record to 23-2, 5-1 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference, where they share first place with Benet.
Now comes February, which started Saturday with a 53-48 win over Morgan Park — the first of six games, and only two remaining in league play, before the playoffs.
“Defense has been the key this year,” Vance said. “Defense leads to offense. We’re all pretty good defenders. We’ve got to keep our effort up on defense and not give up on each other.”
His 6-foot-4 presence along with that of Brown, 6-foot-7, and Thomas, 6-foot-3, made for a crowded lower half of the key. Notre Dame scored only 14 points in the second half.
“Right now, we’re a second-half team, but that’s got to change pretty soon,” Thomas said. “Our goal is just to get down the floor.”
And keep going from February into March.
“Our No. 1 goal is to do the small things better than the other team: offensive rebounds, taking changes,” Hynes said. “We’d like
to have a chance to go back-to-back winning the conference. It’s never happened at Marist. We set the record for wins last year with 29 — we’d like to get 30.
“And if the kids were sitting here, they’d say we’d like to go downstate. But they like the big nights and proved it to all of us last week with (wins over Brother) Rice and Waubonsie (Valley).”